Abe Set to Boost Majority, Opening Way for Abenomics
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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to expand his coalition’s two-thirds parliamentary majority in a general election today, enabling him to push on with an economic program aimed at ridding the country of deflation.
Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party is likely to win about 300 of the 475 seats in the lower house, according to a media poll published Dec. 12, more than the 294 before he dissolved parliament last month. Combined with coalition partner, Komeito, he will retain a “super majority,” of more than 317 seats, allowing the lower chamber to over-ride upper house decisions.